With the PGA Tour season winding down with the four FedExCup playoff events, there is little suspense about which player will emerge as the Tour’s Player of the Year.
Despite the fact there are three players who’ve won three tournaments this season — Justin Thomas, Dustin Johnson and Bubba Watson — one player with two wins stands atop the list: Brooks Koepka, whose two wins happen to be major championships, the U.S. Open and PGA Championship.
Jason Day and Justin Rose also have won two tournaments each. Patrick Reed won the Masters and Francesco Molinari won the British Open.
None of that matters, though, according to Tiger Woods, who’s won several Player of the Year honors in his career.
“You win two majors, you’ve got it,” Woods said Tuesday, referring to Koepka. “It’s not real complicated. It was very similar to what Double D [David Duval] went through in ’98, with Marco [Mark O’Meara] winning two major championships [and winning POY]. Double D won four times that year. I think two majors trumps it.”
Woods, who had massive trouble hitting fairways with his driver at the PGA, could have a short week at Ridgewood if that trend continues. Based on the healthy rough from the rainy summer, Ridgewood will pose problems for inaccurate drivers. In the final round of the PGA, Woods didn’t hit his first fairway until the 10th hole.
“Yeah, we’ve been working on it, experimenting with different shafts and different lofts on my driver and 3-wood,” Woods said Tuesday. “[I’m] just trying to figure it out. I’ve still got two more days, and I’ll still be monkeying around with a couple things, and come game time we’ll see what I go with.”
Woods smirked when asked to characterize the boisterous New York-area crowds.
“They are into it,” Woods said. “It’s a huge sporting town — a little bit more opinionated than most cities. Certainly becomes a lot more opinionated when they tip back a couple. We’ll hear some of that this weekend.”
An important event took place Monday at Arcola Country Club, which is just around the corner from Ridgewood Country Club in Paramus, N.J., where this week’s Northern Trust is being played: Morgan Hoffmann’s first Celebrity Pro-Am.
Hoffmann, who has Muscular Dystrophy and is on a mission to find a cure, hosted a number of PGA Tour pros and other celebrities to raise money for MD research. Among those in attendance were Rory McIlroy, who’s not even playing this week’s Northern Trust but kept his commitment, and Michelle Wie, who’s injured but rode around the course and interacted with participants.
Among the PGA Tour pros who played were Tony Finau, Peter Uihlein, James Hahn, Ryan Armour and Sam Saunders, who shot a course-record 62.
Hoffmann, who spent nearly three months in Nepal earlier this year undergoing experimental treatment and has not yet returned to play on the PGA Tour, has a mantra: “This disease won’t keep me from achieving my dream of winning on the PGA Tour — and it shouldn’t keep anyone else from achieving their dreams, either. I’ve found my calling … and it’s one far beyond golf.”
Among the celebrities who are expected to play in Wednesday’s Northern Trust pro-am are former Knicks guard J.R. Smith, former NFL running back Reggie Bush, author Harlan Coben and Michael Strahan.
Smith, who plays with the Cavaliers now, joined Boomer Esiason, teen actress Skai Jackson and PGA Tour pro Ryan Moore with kids from The First Tee of Metropolitan New York on Tuesday for a VIP Golf Simulator Driving Competition for charity.
